Stephen Cantwell suffered severe burns after passing out on a Las Vegas sidewalk during extreme heat.
Burn centers in the Southwest report a significant increase in contact burns, with many cases proving fatal.
Urban expansion in hot regions increases the risk, with asphalt and concrete absorbing and radiating extreme heat.
Key quote:
“Your body just literally sits there and cooks. When somebody finally finds you, you’re already in multisystem organ failure.”
— Clifford C. Sheckter, surgeon and a burn prevention researcher at Stanford University
Why this matters:
As climate change continues to drive temperatures higher, especially in urban areas, the risk of severe burns from hot surfaces is growing. Vulnerable populations, including the elderly, homeless, and children, are particularly at risk.
Critical minerals for the clean energy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.
Thousands of attendees of the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert faced the prospect of more rain on Sunday after a stretch of heavy precipitation that has tested the resolve of its free-spirited participants as most have been stuck at the site and forced to conserve food and water.
After massive winter downpours, conservationists in California are eager to gather desert seeds as an insurance policy against a hotter and drier future.
